


Open Flame

by literaryoblivion



Series: Freck's Inktober [28]
Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Camping, Established Relationship, Fire, Fishing, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-29
Updated: 2018-10-29
Packaged: 2019-08-09 17:10:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,181
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16453991
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/literaryoblivion/pseuds/literaryoblivion
Summary: Bitty tells Jack he totally loves camping and nature, so Jack takes Bitty camping. Only, Bitty was totally lying and he hates it.





	Open Flame

Now that he thinks about it, Bitty must have been possessed by some outdoor-loving devil when he agreed to let Jack take him camping.

Because now that he’s in the thick of it, (and he does mean thick, the forest is dense around them, the lack of any civilization very apparent) he is regretting enthusiastically telling Jack that he would “love to go camping” and that he “absolutely loves nature and the outdoors, honey.” 

That’s definitely a lie. A huge, giant, big fat lie.

Bitty  _ loves _ to stay in hotels and real beds and being inside air conditioning (or heating) is his comfy place, and nature is in fact beautiful, when you can enjoy it through the window while you are inside away from the elements.

Being in a tent, cooking what you find in the  _ forest  _ or the _ river _ , over an open  _ fire _ is not what Bitty thinks is an ideal living situation, no matter how temporary it may be. He has absolutely no signal on his phone either, so it’s not like he can tweet his lamentations about this situation.

But Jack, Lord, Jack looks so darn happy setting up the tent and putting together their fishing poles, that Bitty doesn’t have the heart to tell him that he is in fact miserable and wants to go home, and they’ve only been there for an hour.

So Bitty bites his tongue, smiles wide when Jack hands him a fishing pole and waves him to follow him down to the river. It helps that Jack comes up behind Bitty and wraps his arms around him to show him just how to cast his line and reel in a fish.

And okay, when Bitty does catch his first fish, which turns out to be bigger than he thought it would (it’s about the size of his hand), he’s pretty happy about it. He even begs Jack to take a picture of him holding it so he can send it to Coach, because he’d never caught anything that big when Coach had made him go fishing with him.

When Jack’s caught his own fish, both of them now having enough for dinner, Bitty is more than happy to let Jack clean the fish while he gets the fire going.

It’s… not going well to be honest. He’s tried the matches, but nothing is catching. He tries the lighter he brought and it keeps going out. He’s made a lot of smoke, but no fire, and he’s starting to worry that at this rate, they’ll never be able to cook dinner and they’ll have to eat questionable berries they scavenge in the forest. (That’s not true, he totally snuck granola bars and trail mix in his bag, but he likes to be dramatic.)

“It might be too wet,” Jack says as he approaches Bitty where he’s squatting by the fire pit, cursing it under his breath.

“Huh?” Bitty says, looking up to find Jack holding the now clean and cut up fish filets.

“I think it rained here a few days ago, so the wood’s probably still damp. That’s probably why it’s not lighting, eh?”

“Oh. Um. Okay. So…. what do we do then?”

Jack nods and sets the fish down on the fold up table Bitty had set up earlier. He disappears into the tent and comes back with a wad of newspaper and a few cut up logs. Where on Earth did he get those logs?

Jack grins. “I brought a couple just in case this happened. Here.” He hands Bitty the newspaper, and brushes aside the various leaves and sticks Bitty had originally set up. He sets up the dry logs and digs a little crevice beneath them in the dirt.

“Okay, light the newspaper here,” Jack says pointing to the dip in the dirt, “and these logs should catch better. Once it’s big enough, we can add others.”

Bitty nods and does as instructed and sure enough, the logs light up and the fire grows. Once it’s big enough, Jack moves a cast iron skillet into the flames, letting it hit up. As much as Bitty loves to bake, this whole cooking on an open flame is not his forte and Jack seems to be handling it just fine, so he lets him.

When it’s ready and they eat, it’s not too bad. It’s nothing like Mama used to make when Coach brought fish home, but it’s still good.

“Where’d you learn all this?” Bitty asks, waving his hand to encompass their entire camping experience thus far. 

It’s dark, fire still glowing, though they’ve had to add a few more logs at this point. Bitty had tried to make some skillet cookie he had found the recipe for before they had left, but he’d forgotten to spray the bottom of the pan, and then he’d left it in the fire too long and…. Yeah. He’s glad Jack and insisted they bring s’more ingredients, too.

Jack shrugs sets his empty plate down beside him and scoots closer to Bitty, who willingly cuddles up to Jack’s side, feeling warmth from the fire and Jack.

“My parents always took me camping in the off-season. Sometimes others would join in, but it was usually just us.”

“That sounds nice. I’m sure it’s beautiful camping up in Canada.”

“It is. Maybe I can take you sometime?”

And… Bitty could totally tell Jack that camping is not his thing, come clean before he embarrassed himself in front of Bad Bob and Mama Zimmerman. Only… it’s Jack and he can’t. “I’d go anywhere with you,” he says, settling on that answer because it’s true. If Jack asked him to go camping with him again, he would, even if he hated it the whole time.

Jack smiles and kisses Bitty on the cheek before standing up and taking their plates to rinse them in the river. Bitty puts the other things away, gets their sleeping bags ready in the tent.

When they’re finally both settled in their bags, pressed up close together, Jack’s arm wrapped around Bitty’s middle, Bitty is glad he’s there with Jack as much as he’s not loving the fact that he’s sleeping on the floor.

“Don’t worry, Bittle,” Jack says in his ear. “Next time I’ll rent a trailer with a stove and a bed.”

Bitty blushes and twists around, flustered and embarrassed and a little indignant. “Who said you had to do that?!”

Jack chuckles and brushes Bitty’s hair from his forehead. “I know you, Bits. I know how much you  _ don’t _ like camping, but I’m glad you pretended you did for me anyway.”

Bitty buries his face in Jack’s chest, feeling the rumble of Jack’s laughs. “I tried!” he mumbles into Jack’s chest.

“I know you did. It’s okay, though. I still love you even if you can’t cook over an open flame,” Jack says jokingly.

Bitty hits him, though there’s no force behind it. Jack just pulls Bitty in closer and kisses the top of his head, then his nose and then his lips. “Good night, Bitty.”

“Good night, Jack.”

**Author's Note:**

> Come say hi on [my tumblr](http://literaryoblivion.tumblr.com) or [my twitter](http://twitter.com/lit_oblivion).


End file.
